One of my favorite mods for Medieval 2: Total War, which I wrote about here back in August, just came out with it's significant 3.0 release. If you want background on Third Age Total War I do recommend reading that article, but if not here is a quick overview of what the mod is and why it is great. Third Age is a Lord of the Rings modification for Medieval 2: Total War, one that entirely converts the game into a unique and massively different experience. They created an entire map of the whole of Middle Earth, well at least most of it, and with that they have created most of the factions in their geographic locations. Everything from the mod is based off the book and along with a war based normal campaign they also have a Fellowship of the Ring campaign that takes you through the world as Frodo and the Fellowship. The mod is very polished and screams of quality, especially since it's been being developed for such a long time. To check out more information on it head over to the MODDB Third Age page. Check out this trailer for it, but on to the information about the 3.0 release.



The 3.0 version of Thrid Age Total War came out two days ago and with it brought a whole bunch of wanted changes. A lot of the new work has to do with the campaign map, with that they added new textures, rivers, resources and other features. When it comes to the battlefield they have added new textures for skies, weather and water. The biggest change is the twenty five new and unique settlements, check out their compilation of some of those.

There is also areas of the world that you can set to become autonomous, allowing them to govern themselves. If you do so they will send you troops and town profits. There is also a bunch of new lore and area info added to regions around the world, plus each area will now tell you the capacities for building and recruiting based on vegetation and culture. The Palantir was also added, one of the orbs of power, that you can use to your benefit or despair. One big feature is the addition of the one ring, which when discovered everyone will race for it and try to destroy or recover it. Besides all that they added some more events and invasion. There is also a bunch of features that aren't really described in detail but mentioned, like improved battle AI, small campaign AI changes, new music, new voices, new custom maps, new characters, changed existing techtrees and also added some new ones, unit stat balances and the new units which can be seen below.



Overall this is pretty huge update and if you have been waiting to check out Third Age Total War, and you own Medieval 2, you should definitely check out the game since it is now better looking than ever before. Ever wanted to fight as the Dwarves, two different Elven Factions, Rhun, Haradim, Mordor, Isengard, The Dale, Rohan or Gondor? Well you can do that and more in Third Age. Thanks for reading, check out their forum below to download and read about the newest update. The download is available on the forums, on MODDB and Fileplanet, plus other places I'm unaware of.
Source: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=500418

-Written by Sean Cargle